The Fallout 76 project, in retrospect

Now that the dust has settled on Fallout 76, I thought I would post a few updates about the current state of the channel.

For any new patrons: welcome.  There are a lot more of you than I thought would be signing on.  I understand if some of you were only here for access to the 76 video.  I appreciate your monetary support and hope to see you again when my next project comes out.  For those staying, I of course also appreciate your support.    

The patronage shilling was somewhat accidental.  I lazily made a template censorship in the public version of the 76 video that would show on screen where you could find the uncensored version.  Not considering how frequent it is in certain parts (WASTELANDERS) this ended up shilling too hard.  Granted, there was the shilling-incident over on Private Sessions stream, but that was ironic and mostly to help kickstart his service as I had financially inconvenienced him by taking too long on my end of the project.  

Offering uncensored, complete cuts early will continue to be my modus operandi going forward.  This is because I want to continue writing and editing the videos I want to make them, no matter how much YouTube does not want me saying the naughty-naughty 'fuck' word.  This is not conjecture: I am actively watching people in this genre struggle with these issues.

Self-censorship is sadly necessary for survival, but I still feel the way I am doing it is more authentic than the alternative: writing those things out of my scripts.  I frankly find this to be an insulting suggestion.  

Think about the last time you heard one of your favorite content creators actually say a swear word.  I'm going to bet you can think of at least one that you didn't notice when they stopped swearing.  There are plenty of other sterile Influencers doing that, I will not add myself to that list.  Uncensored cuts are a new perk for my members.  

Fallout 76 project, in retrospect.

While I could probably have retrospected on any one of the videos I've done on this channel, I feel this project deserves it the most.  Fallout 76 was an extremely complicated, convoluted mess.  Almost nothing about making this video was straightforward.  It was an enjoyable process, and I have had a full conversation with Private Sessions about it.  This is easily one of the most fun projects I've done.  

But the video is a mess.  The censorship was out of my control.  I generally don't write swear words into my scripts.  Swearing was more frequent in this video than other projects, and that was owed to using more clips from playing the game and our rather candid playthrough.  We swore at everything.  The game was kind of miserable to play, so it just put us in a swearing mood.  I have since messed with doing less intrusive censorship, basically masking the word having even been there.

Onto the politics.  Politics is really nothing new for my channel.  The problem is that the broader political discourse has gotten, in a word, silly.  Simply saying the word "misogyny" triggers a fight-or-flight response in some people.  I get that, but I frankly think the discourse around my usage of the word has been, in a word, silly.  From the left side, you'd think I would have accused a developer of child murder.  From the other, well, I frankly don't understand the conservative outrage other than they are upset simply because I said a word that triggers them.

Misogyny is just a pattern of behavior.  And ultimately, yes, I WAS reading into the game.  That's the joke.  You can read into the game heavily and come out with some weird gigachadic meme about the game actually being based and redpilled on topics.  No, I don't think Bethesda are anti-vaxxers.  But combine that with the other things (election denial, pro-nuclear armament, the gold standard, glowing federal agents) it comes through a simple punchline: Bethesda can't even make a political statement without stepping on a rake.  That's the joke, thanks for playing.

There are comments stating my political opinions with unearned confidence.  Given that most of them are pretty far of the mark, I'm pretty confident that I did not, in fact, inject my politics into the video.  My policy remains the same: politics in the game: politics in the video.  Yes, Fallout 76 has all of that stuff in it.  There are literally multiple glowing agents, election voting machines being manipulated, a plotline about adopting the gold standard, and its presentation of women.  

As for the rest of the video: Fallout 76 was a project that refused to be predictable.  The scope of the project kept growing and growing because I was just continually finding new things.  I'm still learning things about that game.  Of the statement "art isn't finished, it's abandoned", 76 is probably one of the more abandoned projects I've done.   I was recording new voice segments for the 76 video during my Outer Worlds recordings.

It, as a game, just didn't deserve the 150 hours of chances I gave it IN PLAYTIME.  It is literally the second longest I've played a game on this channel, beaten only by the game that had a 20 hour video made about it.  Frankly, if the 76 community doesn't consider that giving it a second chance, they are delusional.

The project also just continued to grow and grow.  I am glad I decided to do it after Skyrim and not before, because it would have made the Skyrim video infinitely more stressful to finish due to the time consumption that this project was.  But the fun of the project pretty much ended at it being a collaboration.  I did the nuke montage first, that was really the only fun I had actually building the video.

I visited West Virginia for this video.  I don't think I discussed this enough in the video, because I was somewhat hesitant to work it in.  The script wasn't just done when the trip happened, the voice-over was recorded.  This was a test for a potential future longform video idea.  But it bloated the scope of my video, and for what gain on my end?  A couple shots so I could say "See, I visited the state, I CARE."  I do not regret this action, it simply contributes to the scope-bloat of the video.

76 was a nightmare of footage location.  If I could do it all again, I would have taken way more detailed notes during recording.  I had no idea I'd need them as badly as I did.  Some sections of the video just straight up sucked to put together.  76 was also a nightmare of writing.  I wish I had put a punchier section first, but that ultimately hurt the narrative of the video.  It was a somewhat unwinnable scenario when it came to writing the opening of the video.

Objectively, I think Private Sessions made the better of the two videos.  I usually view my videos completely unfavorably after release, so that may dissipate with time.  But I don't think it is one of my best works.  I also just think that it took too long to produce.

In conclusion: These are my thoughts at present.  I will be making this a public post and sharing it.  I am willing to answer any questions about this project.  I will also be making another, private post to discuss my next projects.